SUMMER 2014 CANCELLATION

EVENT CANCELLED!

It is with great regret that we’ve been forced to cancel the Summer 2014 Beat The Bog obstacle race, due to be held on 20th July at Preston, near Canterbury.

All those who bought tickets for this race will be refunded in full. We are also giving the option for tickets to be rolled over to the next race, BTB Autumn 2014 on 26th October. If you’ve signed up, then you should receive emails about this. (please let us know if you haven’t.)

The cancellation is in order to safeguard protected wildlife at “The Bog” – the site of BTB obstacle courses at Preston Marshes. This wetland area is given special status as a habitat for all kinds of wildlife, in particular for sensitive nesting birds, which have been affected by the highly unusual weather conditions and massive flooding during the first quarter of 2014.

The flooding, which caused most of the BTB site to be under 4 Ft or more of water for some 8 weeks, has led to the nesting season running late this year. This is still having a particular impact on the many protected bird species such as Lapwing, and a large number of these birds will still be nesting later than normal through July. Whilst we organize BTB events, we’re also the guardians of the site and we cannot hold an event likely to disturb this, even in unusual circumstances.

We would like to apologise for the disappointment and inconvenience the cancellation might cause you, especially for those of you planning to run with teams or raise money for charity. We hope you’ll be understanding. This was a difficult decision for us to have to make, but after exploring the options available, there was really no alternative (please see our email, or contact us for further information).

With the great success of previous BTB races, we have big plans for the future, with some exciting new obstacles and course routes being prepared, so don’t be too disheartened …you’ll get your chance at Beating The Bog later this year..!

We can say with some assurance that, in order to avoid this situation in future years, the BTB calendar will be September to April only, to avoid any potential conflicts. Please do keep an eye out here for new course maps, details of new obstacles and news of a fuller calendar of bigger and better events –including Autumn and Winter 2014 and through into 2015… there’s plenty to look forward to!